Juilliard returns to Texas State for 7th joint performance

Posted by Jayme Blaschke University News Service February 14, 2014

Performers from the Juilliard School return to Texas State University for their 7th joint performance 7:30 p.m. March 6.

The University Encore series event will be held in Evans Auditorium on campus. Admission is $5 for children and students, $15 for general seating and $25 for reserved seating. VIP tickets are available for $40 and include a reception immediately preceding the concert.

“This year’s collaboration with the Juilliard School will include even more leading artists,” said Timothy Mottet, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication. “Among the guest artists are Juilliard faculty and alumni who are among the most celebrated in the country: Metropolitan Opera singer Susanna Phillips, Met Orchestra cellist Julia Bruskin, Juilliard faculty pianist Aaron Wunsch, Broadway actor Creed Garnick, to name a few, and, of course, the Texas State Distinguished Alumnus and Juilliard professor Wayne Oquin.”

Other leading artists to perform at this concert include sought-after violinist and winner of the Regina Rubinoff Award Yo-yo Fann and flutist Emi Ferguson, who has won numerous competitions and who stretches the boundaries of what is expected of modern-day instrumentalists. Besides Juilliard faculty and alumni, some of the most advanced students of Texas State’s School of Music as well as of the Juilliard School will appear on stage and perform together.

“The arts event will, for the first time, present American composers and authors exclusively,” said Nico Schüler, professor of music and co-chair of the University Arts Committee at Texas State. “Besides compositions by Christopher Rouse, Samuel Barber, Steve Reich, George Gershwin and John Adams, the concert will feature a world premiere performance of a composition by Kendall Briggs, which was specifically commissioned for this concert. And, of course, the highlight of the evening will be two compositions of our own Wayne Oquin.”

Metropolitan Opera singer Susanna Phillips will perform Oquin’s composition A Backward Glance Over Travel’d Roads, based on poetry by Walt Whitman. Originally commissioned in 2005 by Texas State for its first Juilliard Joins Texas State event, it received the Palmer Dixon Composition Prize at Juilliard.

“I’ve always wanted to program it again,” said Oquin. “For a long time it’s been a dream of mine to have Susanna sing it. When I realized that this was finally going to happen, I used the opportunity to go back to the work during the summer of 2013 and add two new songs.”

Addressing the theme of this year’s Common Experience at Texas State, Minds Matter, the event will focus on the creative process as a key step toward mental health. Musical performances will emphasize a broad spectrum of emotions and the triumph of the human spirit as well as its struggles. A dance performance by Juilliard dancer Victor Lozano will present a self-choreographed reflection on “Stages of Decay.” Passages from from Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winning playwright Eugene O’Neill and from other authors will be performed by Broadway actor Creed Garnick.

This University Arts event is co-sponsored by Wells Fargo, the Common Experience, Texas State Student Service Fees, the Department of Philosophy and the School of Music.

Tickets are available online at www.TxStatePresents.com or at the door on the night of the event. A $2 processing fee will be applied to each ticket. Parking will be available in the Pleasant Street Garage as well as in the LBJ Student Center Parking Garage.

For more information, contact Box Office Manager Robert Styers at (512) 245-6500.